I suppose other people can find this Zen like place with cross-country machines, or exercise bikes, imagining themselves bicycling along a road or cross-country skiing in the snow, but there is something about a rower that does this so perfectly.

In my quest to buy my husband and myself an exercise machine (the rower long gone), I’ve been trying out a machine each trip to the gym we joined for his rehab from open heart surgery. I didn’t go directly to the rower, thinking that I knew I liked it already, and I was so new to a gym environment that I never thought I’d be able to close my eyes there, with so many people around. But I started noticing that no one was using the two rowers they have there, and I wondered if I liked it just because it was the easiest to use, or because it’s what I did those early mornings at home. So I went over to it, got myself adjusted, and found out why no one was using it. It’s broken! Both of them! The digital stuff doesn’t work, so you can’t see what calories you burn, etc, which anyone going to a gym will want. Still, it is a great machine, and I worked out fifteen minutes, finding that zone again, feeling all the muscles in my body working out, getting that burn. But closing my eyes in the gym is still too awkward.

So, there is a very good reason to have this piece of equipment at home, or any other cardiovascular fitness equipment at home, because you can close your eyes! Go for the Zen moment. And exercise equipment at a gym is not always working, or up to date, or clean, and the good ones are often being used. Why wait in line to exercise? That doesn’t make a bit of sense, does it? And why have to look at all the other people, when you can exercise and know you are either all alone, or your baby is peacefully asleep in the next room.

If you are determined to get in shape, maintain your current build, or just want to add some lean muscle to your body, then we here at KingsofCardio.com would love to help you. Let us be your right-hand man and we will provide you with health club quality discount home fitness equipment, free personal training, diet plans, and excellent customer service. We have a wide range of home fitness equipment and Cardio Fitness Equipment at blowout sale prices, including treadmills, elliptical, recumbent bikes, rowing machines, stair climbers, spin cycles, Pilate’s machines and much more. Our store includes modern cardiovascular training equipment and strength equipment, as well as commercial machinery for health clubs and gyms. The Kings of Cardio are entirely dedicated to providing you with gym gear that will enable you to lose weight, look great, and feel your absolute best. Everybody wants to stay in shape, but it is almost impossible to devote the amount of time necessary each and every day that it takes in order to get a full workout in without interruptions. By having a treadmill, elliptical, bike, or other pieces cardio equipment domestically at your disposal, you get to eliminate gas, traffic, sweaty machines, long lines and most importantly, you can save yourself time.

Cardio Fitness Equipment:

When you decide to put your health first through purchasing cardio fitness equipment such as treadmills, exercise bikes, stair steppers, ellipticals, and rowing machines, you must make sure to buy health club caliber and professionally certified cardio exercise equipment. For example, a Weslo Cadence G-40 will not provide the same amount of stability and longevity that a Life Fitness 95Ti treadmill would. In other words, the Life Fitness 95Ti is rated for usage in gyms and expected to work perfectly fine in your home for fifteen to twenty years. Not only will a gym quality treadmill such as the Life Fitness 95Ti last a long time in your home, but the 95Ti was built to withstand constant usage by men that weigh up to 400 pounds. Conversely, the Weslo G-40 Cadence will not last nearly as long as the Life Fitness 95Ti. The Weslo Cadence is rated to last under five years. Additionally, the weight capacity on the Weslo G-40 Cadence treadmill is only 250 pounds, whereas the Life Fitness 95Ti has a treadmill weight capacity of 400 pounds! Other benefits provided by the gym quality Life Fitness 95Ti over the cheaper and lighter Weslo treadmill include a wider and longer running area, user-interactive fitness programs and a stronger, higher quality drive motor. The heavy steel frame of the LF 95Ti treadmill will remain sturdy even throughout fast and intense runs. The Weslo Cadence treadmill is not designed to perform well throughout intense and consistent usage. Through purchasing a Life Fitness 95Ti instead of Weslo Cadence , your expected value will increase as will the quality of your physical fitness routine. To simplify, home fitness equipment is necessary for those who wish to stay in shape and remain healthy, however, budget and lightweight fitness equipment will lose you more dollars than weight. Health club quality fitness equipment is exactly what is needed for the home.

Eliminate distractions through purchasing health club rated cardio in order to look and feel your very best. Finding time for running, biking, climbing and rowing is much easier for those who have fitness equipment such as treadmills, stair steppers, stationary bikes, ellipticals and rowing machines in their homes. Make health the the number one priority for you and your family in 2011. Make sure as an adult that you are not contributing to the fact that two out of three adults are fat. More importantly, make sure your children are not statistics contributing to the fact that the rate of obesity for our children has tripled in the last three decades. Cardio fitness equipment is great for the health and well being of one and their family. Excuses centered around no time, high gas prices, and crowded gyms will be a thing of the past once you have cardio fitness equipment to use at your home. Wake up and jump on the treadmill right away. Get a 15 minute workout in right before breakfast. Studies show people with home fitness equipment are more likely to reman fit than those who do not have a cardiovascular fitness equipment at home

If you are looking to improve your health, do not over think your situation, instead, start exercising for thirty minutes 5 days a week. Do not spend countless hours trying to figure out what would be the best approach to weight loss and muscle growth. Get out of the house, walk to a local track and field, run some laps, do some push-ups and sit-ups and build up a good sweat.

Simple fitness routines are best to start. For example, spend 5 minutes stretching, 10 minutes doing push-ups and sit-ups and then run on a solid treadmill, such as the Life Fitness 95Ti, for the remaining 15 minutes. KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. Believe it or not, that is the way to becoming fit and staying in shape. Once you have made progress and achieved some of your initial goals, then adding variety and excitement to your exercise routine is not a bad idea. However, there is no reason for a comprehensive workout plan for someone who is out of shape and just starting to focus on their physical fitness. The last thing you want is to overwhelm someone by flooding them with new exercises and advanced approaches to lifting weights and cardiovascular training.

Working out on fitness equipment and exercising in order to burn fat is not rocket science. For those that are physically able and healthy to perform such exercises as lifting weights, running and stretching, you should be grateful for that ability. It does not take a healthy bank roll to do 200 push-ups a day. You do not have to be a prodigy in order to do 250 sit-ups per day. A huge house is not necessary for running on a treadmill. The point we are trying to drive home is that all of the fitness equipment and personal trainers in the world are not going to get you in shape if you are not entirely dedicated to becoming healthy on your own. We can lead you to a Life Fitness 95Xi elliptical, but we can’t make you train on it. We can give you comprehensive workout plans, but we can’t make you execute them.

If you are ready to make it happen and build a home gym, there are two simple steps you must follow. Make sure you buy at least 1 piece of cardio equipment and at least one piece of strength equipment. Cardiovascular training machines include treadmills, ellipticals, rowing machines, exercise bikes and stair steppers. Strength equipment such as multi-stations home gyms and free-weight sets are essential for any home gym.

So, this is where I am now. 5’6, 141 lbs. Female. Good shoulders (I work on that, my vanity) I’m stronger than many my age—I can lift heavy boxes, hike up a hill, twist open the tops of jars when someone hands one over with that look of, “Well, I can’t do it, maybe you can.” So, I’m sort of where I want to be. (I could lose five more pounds. I’d love to lose five more pounds.) But to stay here, strong-shouldered and all, I have to keep at it.

I workout three days a week, at a gym, using the machines I wish I owned. (I’m saving for a treadmill, almost there—Kings of Cardio are going to give me a good deal.) But for now it’s the gym—and fast walking on the off days. (Oh, and eating healthy food, although I can’t resist bagels with cream cheese or a dark chocolate candy bar. Hersey’s bittersweet!) First I stretch, loosing up my calf muscles by placing one foot a good step in front of the other, leaning forward, bouncing slightly. Then all the other stretches—you probably know them, for my back and lats and arms. Five minutes. I always want to shorten this time, get to the machines, but they say that’s a mistake. (Like they say to make sure you eat in the morning—it triggers your metabolism, gets it going, otherwise it’s slowing down, worrying it won’t get fuel. Sumo wrestlers don’t eat until right before they go to sleep at night. If they ate regular meals, or even snacked in between, they’d lose weight!)

After the stretches, I head to the treadmill. I used to like the elliptical, and there’s nothing wrong with them, I’m just fonder, at the moment, of the treadmill. I can push myself harder, get up a full head of steam, so to speak. I work out on the treadmill for 33 minutes (I add a minute every week, that’s why I’m at 33 minutes, and my hour in the gym gets a might bit longer, too—but one minute a week makes it less noticeable, easier to do than you’d think.) I generally burn about 330 calories. I start off at a walk for 2 minutes, at an incline of 3% at 2.7 mph, then up the incline to 5%, and sped up to 3.7 mph, for three minutes, and then I increase the incline to 9%, at 4 miles per hour, for 25 minutes to get my heart beating. (Well, it’s already beating, but you know what I mean.) Then I lower the incline to 4% and slow down to 3.6 mph, for -3 minutes. (I’m no pro at all of this, so my terms are my own. Hope they make sense.)

Then it’s on the resistance training with the machines. (Might I ever really have a home gym? I’m hoping so. It’s my fantasy, turning my basement into a home gym. I always put on makeup to leave the house and fix my hair, which is plain nuts before a workout, but I can’t go out otherwise.)

At the leg press I set the weights at 134 pounds, so I’m pushing 268 lbs. I say push, but the workout is also about the control of the release motion. I do ten reps, three times, with a rest between them for 20 seconds. I started, last year, at 120 lbs on each side (total 240), so that’s how long it took to get here.

Next, hip-abduction, sitting back at an incline, pushing outwards with my thighs, set at 120 lbs. Ten reps, three times, that short 20 second rest in between. Then hip-adduction, the opposite of hip-abduction. I press inwards with my thighs, same weight levels. Once again, ten reps, three times. That seems to be pretty standard for most of the weight machines.

Then I workout my abdomen. This machine is not so much a machine but an angled bench that you can adjust. I lay on it with my head at the bottom, feet at the top and do sit ups. I can’t do three reps yet, just 10 sit ups, rest, then 7 more. I hold my hands near my head for momentum, though I’m not sure you’re supposed to do that.

Then there’s another machine for abs. This one you can’t adjust and it’s at a lower angle than the last one, with your abs lower, too, if that makes sense. On this I can do ten sit ups and three reps.

Next I use the compound Rower. I set the weights a little lower this last week because I hurt my shoulder at work. So, only at 70 lbs, pushing down 10 times, 3 reps.

For an aerobic workout before the free weights I use the step machine for about 10 minutes, which usually means I climb about 39 flights of stairs. (Great machine! Has workout stats—average heart beats, etc.)

I end with the free weights. 10 lbs in each hand, doing some arm exercises. Then I cool down with stretching and a warm shower, and make sure to drink some water.

That’s it. Kings of Cardio say that if I put this on their blog, maybe people will write in with their routines, and encourage me to keep up with mine. I’ll write back when I learn new things about exercising, or try a new machine. What’s your favorite?

The good part is that, there are not any stores that has reviews as good as the reviews for kings of cardio.